Kramer and the Beer Factory

Cultural experience number 5 with the language class was a visit to the Spaten-Franzikaner-Löwenbräu Brewery in München.  The brewery has occupied the same site in down town München since 1854.  The place was just like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory only the Oompa Loompas were bigger and the chocolate fountain was, of course, a beer fountain.  The tour was spoken in Deutsch and luckily because of prior brewing knowledge I understood most of what was going on.  I came away with three poignant facts.  They produce an awful lot of beer, the average number of times a glass bottle is recycled is 21 and that the cost to deck out 6 normal wagon horses in traditional livery for Oktoberfest was over €700,000.

12 lucky and girls and boys were chosen to go upstairs to the senior management canteen to sample the product.  In Australia this would mean that you get a thimble full of their least expensive product.  In Germany it means you sit around a big table and a kind lady takes your order.  The beer is served in halves but this means half a litre and there are bretzels for as far as the eye can see.  The organiser of the event did a sterling job but let herself down at the last moment when she failed to account for some fundamental cultural differences.  Instead of saying we need to leave here at 6pm she said you can only order beer until 6pm then we must leave.  The difference is subtle but the consequences are far reaching.  For an Irishman, an Australian and 3 Koreans all we heard was you have 45 minutes to neck as much beer as possible.  The Koreans led the charge with the ambition of sampling all the beers produced in 500mL increments.  For myself and the Irishman we knew what we liked and stuck to it.  For me it was Dunkel Weißbier, for him it was a Helles. For the last round I whispered the magic words "Haben Sie Stark Bier" to the kind lady and verily there came 5 Stark Biers with their froth flowing, over their taste dark and malty and an alcohol content approaching that of a good Shiraz.

I rode home that afternoon.  It was peak hour and raining, the tail end of a thunderstorm.  There is nothing like riding a fixed wheel bicycle through a strange city at peak hour in the rain to heighten ones senses.  I had a moment, only a little moment, where I dropped the back wheel into the tram tracks but the force was with me and I managed to keep everything up right and travelling in the desired direction.  I also became geographically challenged for a little while but it didn't concern me because I knew that I was in München and if you know what city you are in then things can't be that bad.